Tips for Avoid being Catfished on Social Media!

Texts of General Interest (link)

Dr. James Manos (MD)

April 24, 2018

Tips to avoid being catfished on your social media!

Image (public domain): Channel Catfish. Author:  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers soldier or employee. Uploaded by the user: Harmil (commons wiki). Source: Wikipedia. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Channelcat.jpg

What is a catfish?

Urbandictionary.com defines a Catfish as someone who pretends to be someone else, especially on the internet. Found on anywhere from Instagram to Twitter to chat sites, these people use fake pictures to disguise who they are. A synonym for this in some situations may be "troll" because most catfish are merely out to troll others, while others have their reasons for this approach.

Are unfamiliar individuals with whom someone chats on social media reliable?

Since someone can be caught by the ubiquitous catfish over the web, social media isn’t 100% safe for chatting with an unfamiliar individual. Meeting them is something risky, as many allegations of rape have occurred. That makes social media unreliable concerning the genuineness of profiles. Nevertheless, many people first meet on social media, such as Facebook, and then date in real life! The problem is that many people on social media are fake and try to snare others, i.e., they are catfish! So, someone may talk and even meet with a person who is fake! They deliberately have fake profiles and have uploaded fake photos. They deliberately have fake profiles and have uploaded fake photos.

It is risky to meet a cyber social media follower. Not only has the catfish used a fake profile and is a cheater, but it also may have a contrasting character to the one shown on social media; for instance, it may be aggressive or abusive.

How can I discover if a profile is fake?

Details about life, including career

Often, a catfish may display an impressive resume, including studies and career, which is fake. This resume may include graduation from a famous university, a high status, and other remarkable information.  The catfish often appear young and single, always available to date. The age and any information on the profile may be fake. Personal details may be deliberately omitted, gender may also be false, and every gender and sexual orientation (including LGBT) should be expected! A fake person avoids referring to further information concerning life events, especially his/ her job.

Friends

A fake profile may have many friends. But the question is whether any friend can confirm that the profile is accurate. If not, then the profile may be fake. That means you can talk to friends on an account belonging to a person you suspect is a catfish. So, his/her friends will ascertain if someone is real and genuine or fake. However, some catfish create counterfeit friends that are themselves! These make bogus comments and give misleading information.

Photos and the ‘Reverse Image Search

A fake person often has no pictures of them, may have just a few pictures, or has posted photos where his/her face is not visible.  The posted photos may show not a random individual but an edited picture using a Photoshop-like program.

Usually, a fake person uses photos of others downloaded from the internet, for example, on ‘Google Images.’ They use pictures of random persons that are usually impressive, such as male or female models. Others even use photos of celebrities such as Justin Bieber for a male and Kim Kardashian for a female!

So, an impressive photo of a handsome male or a pretty female should make us suspicious, especially if the picture resembles a model. However, many, if not most, catfish use stunning photos of good-looking random people they have tracked on the web. Men are usually depicted with impressive six-packs (although real six-packs are rare to meet as they are achieved with starvation and, to a lesser extent, with crunches) and are typically shirtless. In contrast, women are depicted as slim, with excellent shape, resembling a top model. However, since stunning photos of a random person are unusual for ordinary people, this should make us wonder if they are authentic, as ordinary people in real life don’t look like supermodels! On the contrary, a bald, chubby guy and a wrinkled overweight girl may look more familiar and genuine than a person with an impressive look! 

You can directly uncover fake photos with the ‘reverse image search.’  With this ‘technique,’ you can download the suspect’s picture, save it on your computer, and then go to ’Google Images,’ select ‘Search by image’ (camera icon), and upload the photo. Then, you can check the web for the same pictures! You will be surprised when you discover that a ‘random’ image of a person on social media, in fact, appears on many sites on the internet and belongs to a person with a different name and details!

On the internet, there are many ‘reverse image search’ sites.

Using the above method, you can also check for other profiles on the same social media with the same name and photos.

Cell phone

If the suspected catfish includes a cell phone on their contact details or a friend knows the suspect's cellphone, you can quickly check the mobile phone online. You can do this by using ‘Google Search’ to find the suspect's name and address (if the location is displayed on the profile) and if they are authentic, i.e., the one the suspect mentions on his/ her profile. However, a cell phone may be registered with a close family member’s name, for example, his/ her mother’s, or unregistered.

Video call

An excellent method of uncovering a fake person is to make a video call via social media, for example, using Messenger on Facebook. If social media doesn’t offer direct video calls, you may do this through your cell phone if you own a smartphone.  Otherwise, you may efficiently use Skype. But you should remember that in some cases, the catfish may use some tricks, such as using another person to talk or may appear in a poor-lit room where dark is obscuring his/ her face! Sometimes the catfish may even disguise, for example, by wearing a wig. Often, they may wear a large hat and sunglasses or a veil, if a woman, to hide their countenance! In any case, the video call is the best way to discover a catfish having in mind the pre-mentioned tricks!

Photo with the name on a cardboard

Another method of uncovering a fake profile is to ask the individual to take a photo with them holding a cardboard with their name written on it. The catfish may deceive you by editing his fake picture or, less often, may use a friend that resembles the image or take a photo where his/ her facial characteristics are obscured by a large hat, sunglasses, a veil (if a woman), etc.  

Profile

Finally, a catfish may use several profiles that are all fake. Notwithstanding, the above tricks will help you discover a fake profile.

Limiting fake profiles

The only way to limit fake profiles is when you discover them to both block and report them so that their account to be immediately deleted.


Good luck with uncovering the catfish!

Thanks for reading!